news Bad news for chickens, good news for Dickinson: Buffalo Wild Wings is coming to town, possibly as early as this fall.
The popular Ohio-based sports bar and restaurant chain is planning to open its latest North Dakota location in the rapidly developing West Ridge Center, managed by Roers Development...
Dickinson, 58602

Dickinson North Dakota 1815 1st Street West 58602

2014-06-14 16:45:19

Bad news for chickens, good news for Dickinson: Buffalo Wild Wings is coming to town, possibly as early as this fall.

The popular Ohio-based sports bar and restaurant chain is planning to open its latest North Dakota location in the rapidly developing West Ridge Center, managed by Roers Development Inc.

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Co-franchisee Dani Reichenberger confirmed that she and her family are in the process of expanding their business to Dickinson after postings for managerial positions for the restaurant were listed Thursday on Job Service North Dakota.

Reichenberger, who already owns restaurants in Minot and Williston with her parents and sister, said she and her family have been eyeing Dickinson since late 2009, saying they feel like they could definitely add to the Buffalo Wild Wings family in the city.

“It’s the community of families, she said. “That’s what’s most suiting about it for us.”

Reichenberger’s franchise territory covers the western part of North Dakota, and the Bakken has been good for business.

The Minot location has “grown tremendously” since it opened in 2008, she said, and although the Williston restaurant has only been open for about a year, business started off big and stayed big, she added.

Roers president Larry Nygard said that he has seen the success of other Buffalo Wild Wings locations is excited for them to join the West Ridge Center.

“It’s a great addition to the city of Dickinson and also West Ridge,” he said.

The new restaurant will be the first North Dakota location to feature the new “stadia” design, Reichenberger said. It will have a horseshoe-shaped bar and jumbotron, more than 30 beers on tap and a patio.

“We will have the newest of the new there,” she said.

Many Dickinson residents have been pushing for Buffalo Wild Wings to open a restaurant in town for some time.

Managers at the Williston and Minot restaurants are constantly telling Reichenberger they get requests to come to Dickinson, she said.

“That was a large determining factor,” she said. “We feel like it’s something the community has asked for.”

Buffalo Wild Wings isn’t the only chain looking to extend into Dickinson. Nygard said he’s in talks with at least two other restaurants for possible West Ridge Center locations.

“There are some new retailers moving to town, and that’s great,” he said, adding the development is “part of a natural transgression” following the area’s population growth.

“Of course, the first things affected here are housing needs, and then the retail follows them,” he said. “I think that’s pretty common, and we’ll start to see a lot of that.”

Cooper Whitman, executive director of the Dickinson Chamber of Commerce, said he frequently receives calls from restaurant companies to do initial market research and connect with developers in the area.

Even with the upcoming arrival of Buffalo Wild Wings — and, more recently, restaurants Players, Wildcat Pizza and Sakura — Whitman said there is still room in the market for more food options.

“I don’t think that there’s any concern that the food-service industry is oversaturated,” he said. “I don’t think we’re there yet.”

Even if the new Buffalo Wild Wings poses some competition to similar businesses like Applebee’s and Players, Reichenberger said she believes restaurants already in Dickinson will continue to do well.

“I think there’s enough of a market that it will spread out,” she said. “Similar to Williston, we just want to create an additional place (for people) to have choices on where they want to go.”

The restaurant is hiring managers in anticipation of an October opening. Reichenberger said the Dickinson location will be similar in size to those in Williston and Minot, which employ around 100 employees and five managers each.